Critical Analysis Of Paul Cezanne's On The Banks Of A River

Walking in Impressionist Gallery, you might be enticed by a vivid cluster of color. With strong curiosity, you might go forward to scrutinize this piece carefully. The orange strokes at the center of the image form a row of cabins beside river and blue strokes around oranges ones create a lush forest. It is an oil painting on canvas depicting a cozy moment of one side of a riverbank in the countryside. On the Banks of a River, a joyous work created by Paul Cezanne with complementary colors, splotched strokes and thin layers expressed the painter’s light mood and appreciation to the nature.

The bright color is the first element attracting audiences’ eyes. Without delicate mixture, the colors are expressed in a crude way. The bright orange and yellow accumulating at the center and left of the picture catch most of attention. Combining different

The sea green and cobalt blue perfectly interact with the village too. Deriving from pure blue and green, indigo, India green and little bit maroon overlap each other to form a energetic vegetation around the village. The forest covers one of third canvas of the picture, embracing the main scene, the village, with a clearer outline and offering more significance to the scene at the middle. By reinforcing the contrast between complementary colors, Cezanne brings a strong energy from the image to the audiences. As the colors are relatively pure and warm, they arouse a sense of pleasure and happiness. The less saturated colors at the bottom emphasizes colors at the center. Around the village, specially at the bottom of the picture are low contrasted cool gray, plum and pale sliver. The peripheral colors support the main scene of the work and automatically lower the audiences’ attention at the edge of the image. This color composition denotes the